Welcome to Monsters Part 5: The Monsters Next Door

Some monsters are terrifying because they seem perfectly normal when you first meet them. They may be charming and extremely kind to draw people in, but it's all an act. They're manipulative and play mind games with their victims.

They are a lot like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.

I keep using this picture.

Right after the live action Beauty and the Beast movie came out, there were the usual million and ten posts about how the movie is romanticizing Stockholm Syndrome and how Belle wants adventure, but then settles for a man. Seeing all these posts over-analyzing a Disney movie gets annoying. But then I spotted an article about how scary Gaston is as a villain.

I wish I had saved the article or (more likely) tumblr post that I had seen explaining why Gaston was so terrifying as a villain. But since I didn't (and I'm too lazy to track it down), I'll just have to summarize the conclusion the best I can.

Basically, the author of the post concluded that Gaston is that bully you know in school whom everyone loves, but terrorizes anyone that crosses them for even the slightest reason. This type of bully is even able to turn an entire community (school or village) against their victim. Remember the Mob Song? In the live action version of the movie, they updated the lyrics to include Gaston bragging about how he is able to manipulate the villagers into doing whatever he wants.

"You can bet they all will follow

For in times like this, they'll do just as I say"

I know I'm not the first person to notice this, but one of the biggest reasons Gaston is such a good villain is because how easily he could have been the good guy in the movie. He's described as handsome, heroic, and beloved by the entire village. Beloved by everyone except for Belle and since Belle refuses to worship the ground Gaston walks on (and she reads) people thinks she's weird. 

In Beauty and the Beast, it's easy to identify Gaston as the villain since we're seeing the story from Belle's perspective. Her disdain for his arrogance and ego make it easy to identify him as an antagonist early in the story. From the begining of the movie, we aren't supposed to like Gaston.

Recently, Disney has been shaking up their villain narratives by having more and more "surprise villains". These villains are much harder to identify early in the story. They usually start out as a supporting character, helpful even, but are really just using the protagonist to achieve their goals. Both Frozen and Zootopia have villains that show up in the third act that are supposed to be a "twist". 

Hans may be a pretty weak villain and almost comes out of no where as a bad guy (I still love the movie, so no real hate here), but his betrayal is very real and catches Anna completely off guard. Anna's hurt is real and she nearly dies because of Hans's cruel actions. And while Zootopia is about overcoming prejudice in society, Bellwether is the "surprise" villain exploiting the problem while trying to take over the city's government and subjugating the predators in the city. 

Hans and Bellwether may not appear scary of monstrous, but their actions certainly are. They have malicious goals and are willing to do anything to achieve them, even kill. 

Then there are the characters who are beloved by those around them while at the same time, just seem to destroy the lives of everyone they come across. The Picture of Dorian Gray centers around a man who sold his soul so that he could maintain his beauty. What makes this story really interesting his how he affects the people around him. Nearly everyone who comes across Dorian Gray suffers a horrible fate. The actress Sibyl Vane commits suicide once she realizes that Dorian no longer loves her. Dorian gets his young friend Adrian Singleton addicted to opium. Alan Campbell is blackmailed by Dorian. Basil Hallward, who painted the portrait (and may have been in love with Dorian) is murdered by Dorian in a fit of rage.

All the while Dorian Gray looks like a respectable member of high society.

If it weren't for ugliness of his portrait to show his true nature, Dorian Gray would have been seen as that dashing bachelor that anyone would have been lucky to associate themselves with. He is the insidious monster that doesn't want to take over the world, but destroys those around him slowly, methodically.

Nearly everyone knows someone who is like Gaston, Hans, Bellwether, or Gray. The people who seem perfectly normal or are even hailed as pillars of their community, but are really egocentric maniacs who will destroy anyone who gets in their way. They are the monsters who are so difficult to realize they are monsters that we don't realize we've been tricked until we are facing our own destruction.

Personally, I think these are the  most dangerous monsters. They will draw you in with a smile and make you think you deserve the knife they stab you in the back with. What's even more terrifying is these types of monsters really exist and can be really hard to identify.

They are the monsters you don't know are monsters until it's too late.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a message. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to a Fairy Tale Adventure

When first I saw that Disney was making a live action Beauty and the Beast movie (one of my favorites from when I was a kid), I thought - well that's completely unnecessary. Then I saw the trailers and listened to the music. I just knew I had to see this movie, even if I did have to sit in a theater with an army of little girls decked out in their best princess outfits.

It was so worth it.

There's just something amazing about seeing the magic of a fairy tale come to life on the big screen. Though, personally I would have been even more thrilled if they had re-released the animated movie in theaters, but the live action movie was a lot better than I originally thought it would be. I still like the original more, but that's my opinion. It was also really cool to see how much technology has changed (especially if you compare the new movie to the 1946 French movie).

The inner child in me was so happy to see this movie that I, of course, went home and put the animated version on right away. While singing along and cleaning my apartment, I was struck by a line Belle sings after she rejects Gaston's marriage proposal.

"I want adventure in the great wide somewhere. I want it more than I can tell."

I've seen that line dozens of times on social media. I think there's even a meme floating around with Belle's arms flung open in the field where she's singing.

It's a good line and I think it sums up half of the reason I love of fairy tales (and fantasy and science fiction). It's that longing for an unexpected adventure. Where my mind is so completely blown away with everything that happens, that it's hard to express my awe. It's being able to leave the boring world behind and go somewhere completely unexpected.

I can't be the only person who feels this way.

Many of the stories I enjoyed as a child had heroes that somehow found themselves embroiled in an unusual situation.

For example, the Hobbit starts with Bilbo enjoying his morning, he meets Gandalf, then later that evening a party of dwarves unexpectedly, and suddenly Bilbo is being hired as a burgle to steal something from a dragon. The ordinary quickly becomes the extraordinary in the span of a day.

Or how about how Aladdin comes across the magic genie*? He starts out his day casually stealing breakfast, accidentally comes across a runaway princess, gets arrested, and is then tricked by Jafar into going into the Cave of Wonders. I don't think Aladdin got up that morning and thought, yes today is the day that I go on an adventure.

 The other half of my love for fairy tale stories is likely because of magic.

Yeah, I know magic doesn't actually exist (or does it?), but it can signify how the improbable becomes the possible. I might not have gotten my letter to Hogwarts (or Ilvermorny), but neither did Jacob Kowalski and he got to help Newt with his escaped Fantastic Beasts. I don't expect to stumble upon a seemingly abandoned castle with sentient furniture while hiking (actually that would be really impressive since I live in North America), but neither was Maurice while he was looking for shelter.

Okay yeah, all those examples were stories and movies. They were created to teach entertaining lessons. Some even used to provide an explanation for the unknown world. But nearly all of them continue to inspire our imaginations today.

Adventures happen, even without magic and singing demigods. Some are planned vacations to new counties, others are unexpected (like having a random snow storm in mid March). Without the ordinary days, it's hard to appreciate the extraordinary ones.

Then again, I could have met a witch or wizard, but don't remember because my memory was oblivated. It could have happened.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.

*I actually know a couple different versions of this story, but I'm using the Disney version as an example since more people are familiar with it.